In the last couple of weeks, I have tried to come up with ideas on what creatures I will design. I put it out to my peers, and got ideas ranging from creatures from Chinese folklore, to oddly specific creature with six arms. I have not chosen what my other three or four creatures to make, yet.
My first creature will be a part of a larger passion project I was making in conjunction with my younger brother. It takes place on a fictional and lush planet that starts of in balance, but external forces cause the corruption of the original occupants. So the creature I am designing is a robot-type creature. At one point, this creature was created to maintain the fields for a farming society. They stood to ward of animals, plow the fields, help harvest crops. I have not chosen the specific function of my creature yet, but these were all going through my head as I was creating silhouettes. I am fond with most of the designs, but I plan to run them by my peers before class to see which ones maybe have the most visual appeal. There are a couple that would come in small groups, so I might have to design more than one for a single project (see design H and R). Here are the initial designs as they are:
Throughout this project, I’ve been referencing farming equipment, artists with a particular way of depicting humanoid forms, sculptures from a Polish artist I found, called Stanislaw Szukalski. The humans and animals he portrays have a very industrial feel to them that I like. I was looking at different farming tools, as well as ancient South American art.
This moodboard is not complete, and as I progress I will continue to add to it. I want these machines to have a quasi-religious feel to them, so I may look at some more religious iconography as I continue.
The Next Step
The next step would be to narrow down the silhouettes and start iterating for a particular design. I would also like to start work on at least one other creature design.
Gavin Popken Art and Design 